Finnegan Shannon

Massage Chair, 2024

I Want To Believe (Massage Chair)

A massage chair sits within a yellow spiral on a museum gallery floor. Audio and a zine are paired with it, featuring a text composed from pain relief product ads using phrases like "eases aches and pains," and "long-lasting relief"

  • About:
    An installation of a massage chair sat at the center of a vinyl spiral on the floor. The chair comes with an audio and transcript of me reading a text composed from ad copy taken from the Hammacher Schlemmer "pain relief" product section and similar websites. For me, the piece is about the desire, promise, and impossibility of pain relief. It’s also about the ways capitalism overpromises our ability to purchase relief and comfort. It also acknowledges how wonderful those promises sound.

    Created for Smoke and Mirrors at Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Jersey.

  • Year: 2024

  • Materials: Massage chair, anti-slip tape, audio, audio transcript zine

  • Size: Dimensions variable